1. Reservation of Copyright
The disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent disclosure as it appear in the publicly available U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring the use and performance of telecommunications network resources. In another aspect, the present invention is related to subsystems interacting with digital and analog telecommunications switches to provide information useful for managing the capacity of telecommunications network resources.
3. Description of Background Information
Communications networks facilitate communication between various devices. Two major categories of communications networks generally include broadcast networks and switching networks. A switching network may have a number of switching nodes interconnecting various types of transmission links. Such transmission links may traverse various physical distances, serving as, for example, PBX lines, long-distance lines, local exchange carrier lines, foreign exchange lines, 800-WATS lines, and/or tie lines. The physical connection may be made with the use of a cable, e.g., twisted copper pair, fiber-optic cabling, two-wire open lines, or coaxial cable, or it may be wireless, e.g., using cellular technologies, satellite transmission systems, terrestrial microwave links, or radio links. One or more combinations of existing networking technologies may be used to transmit signals over transmission lines, such as T1, PCM-30, SONET, ISDN, frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), DMS (Digital Multiplex System), EWSD, and PBX.
Some popular switches include Nortel""s DMS 100, Lucent""s 5ESS, Siemens"" EWSD, Lucent""s 1AESS, and Nortel""s Meridan PBX switches. These switches may be used to form circuit-switched networks, packet-switched networks, or hybrid combinations of the same. Switching technologies such as frame relay, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), ISDN and broadband ISDN may all be accommodated by these switch types as well.
Many different network information management (NIM) systems collect traffic-related data concerning the capacity, use and performance of the various links, link components, switches, switch components, and other network resources forming a given network.
Some such NIM systems perform measurements on network resources (e.g., trunk groups, switching modules, line units, and so on) to obtain traffic-related data (e.g., peg count, overflow/blockage and usage information) associated with each such network resource.
Generally, NIM systems obtain information concerning congestion and its causes so that system administrators or users may assess whether certain network resources or groups of network resources are over-dimensioned, under-dimensioned, and/or improperly arranged or provisioned. Traffic-related data concerning actual use and performance of network resources can be provided, and forecast data can be extrapolated therefrom, to supply the data necessary to provide new network resources and/or to reconfigure or extend existing network resources.
Some conventional systems include the Lucent EADAS data collector and certain downstream operational support systems (e.g., NTMOS) which use data collected by the EADAS data collector to carry out certain operations system support functions.
Yet other NIM systems capture traffic-related data concerning network resources (e.g., trunks) between switches. One such system is described at Applied Digital Access""s Web Site (ADA""s) (www.ada.com). The system is called the Traffic Data Collection and Engineering operations system (TDCandE). It is described as a service assurance package for switched networks which supports all major traffic engineering functions, including equipment servicing, trunk forecasting, load balancing, toll separations, marketing studies, and service level exceptions.
According to their Web Site (www.hekimian.com), Hekimian Laboratories, Inc. provides a PM (performance monitor) Integrator System which collects and analyzes PM data from network elements (NEs)throughout the network. Users can request lists, graphs, and reports to check the state of the network. Technicians may review these presentations on a daily basis to determine if the service quality level of a circuit is satisfactory, and can look for trends to see if a circuit""s performance is declining over time or experiencing intermittent errors.
Objective System Integrators in its web site (www.osi.com) describes a product called traffic-MASTER(trademark). The product is said to be a fully automated, real-time traffic management and traffic management data collection and reporting tool that addresses the information needs related to switch performance and network traffic. The stated benefits of using traffic-MASTER(trademark) include increased call completions, immediate response to network failures, and preservation of greater service levels during network failures and high-traffic situations.
Bear Creek Technologies has a family of network information management products.
The TrafficWise(copyright) NIM products directly interact with individual switches to initiate traffic engineering studies, analyze the produced data, and automatically produce traffic-related reports. Other systems have required manual operations and complex training to administer and configure multiple switches in order to perform traffic studies. Each study would take on the order of six to nine weeks to order, receive and view traffic engineering and customer service studies. Such studies were manually submitted, and members of the network operation staff would spend many hours checking for errors before initiating the study at the switch. This required the manual tracking of switch registers assigned to gather traffic-related data. In some cases, studies would be stopped early or left up too long, leaving switch registers unavailable for additional studies.
FIG. 1 provides a high level block diagram of the TrafficWise(copyright) Regional Reporting System, Version 3.0.
The illustrated system 10 comprises, among other elements, a user work station 12 connected in tandem to a web server 14 and a switch server 16. A plurality of switches 18a-18c are each coupled to switch server 16 via a switch network (not shown). The switch network may comprise, e.g., an Ethernet network, or a DataKit type connection. Client software is provided on the user work station 12, and intranet web server software is provided on web server 14. Software residing on switch server 16 enables traffic data to flow from each such switch to switch server 16 and web server 14.
Switch server 16 will establish communication with the appropriate switch based upon a CLLI (Common Language Location Identifierxe2x80x94a switch identifying value) specified by the user at user work station 12 and provided to switch server 16 via web server 14.
The user will interface with the system via user work station 12 and click a xe2x80x9cnew orderxe2x80x9d button in a tool bar. The user will then specify information regarding the study to be requested including a switch identifier (switch CLLI), the facility type, the OM group, period of time over which the study will be performed, the traffic study model (e.g., Poisson or Erlang C), and the facility name.
Once the data is entered, the system will verify that the switch CLLI is valid and that the OM group name is in the correct format. Once a new study is successfully entered and saved, it will appear in a studies field. Once all of the customer data and the studies are entered to the satisfaction of the system user, a submit button may be triggered which will send the order to web server 14. Web server 14 then instructs switch server 16 to communicate with the appropriate switch based upon the input CLLI value. Switch server 16 will communicate with the appropriate switch at predetermined intervals and query the switch to verify whether the designated facility can be studied. If the study cannot be verified, an alert icon will appear on the studies list screen.
At a predetermined time (configurable by the system administrator), switch server 16 will attempt to set up the study on the switch enabling the traffic data to flow from the selected switch 18i (18a, 18b, or 18c) to switch server 16. If a study cannot be set up, that study is cancelled. The reason why the study was not set up and the appropriate corrective action will then be available for retrieval by the user at user work station 12.
After the study has ended, switch server 16 will again interact with the appropriate switch 18i to turn off the flow of data from switch 18i to server 16, thereby freeing the switches resources.
FIG. 2 illustrates at a high level the switch interaction functions performed by the system illustrated in FIG. 1. In step S2, a studies list is modified at user work station 12 when a new study is scheduled by the user. In step S4, the study is scheduled in accordance with a time specified by the user to commence the study. A setup_lead_time variable is used to determine the time at which switch server 16 will start trying to set up the study. More specifically the study start time specified by the user less the setup_lead_time is the time at which switch server 16 will start trying to set up the study. The setup_lead_time value is a time set during the initialization of switch server 16, and can be changed.
Should the user specify that a study is to start on Aug. 1, 1997, the system will start a predetermined amount of time before that date, e.g., on Jul. 30, 1997, if the setup_lead_time is equal to two days, and start the output of OM measurements in advance.
At step S6, the process will connect to the switch and proceed to step S8. At step S8, a presently scheduled switch interaction of a particular type (i.e., verify, setup, takedown, or cancel) scheduled together for the designated switch will be performed. After performing the a scheduled switch interaction at step S8, the switch server 16 proceeds to step S12, and determines whether another switch interaction of the same type is scheduled. If not, the process proceeds to step S14 where switch server 16 is disconnected from the switch. If the answer at step S12 is yes, switch server 16 does not disconnect from the switch as indicated at step S16 and returns to step S8.
The software executed on switch server 16 includes, among other things, a parallel verify manager and a parallel setup manager. Each of these programs communicate with switch interaction code in a mutually dependent fashion in order to perform any needed switch interaction functions. The parallel verify manger and the parallel setup manager are each state-driven. They each pull items related to study requests. The traffic-reporting system initiates switch interaction items by specifying a particular state. Some of the various states include: created, verified, configured, processing, complete, cancelled, and a plurality of report statuses (cancelled sent, cancelled sending, complete sent). By way of example, the parallel verify manager pulls all items of a particular state into memory and performs switch interactions corresponding to those items accordingly.
This structure was disadvantageous for a number of reasons, including limitations regarding scalability. As more studies were added, more items would be pulled into memory by the parallel verify manager or the parallel setup manager. In addition, it was sometimes necessary to connect to the same switch at least four separate times to complete a given set of work for that switch.
Improved network information management systems are needed which interact with the switch in an automated fashion to provide accurate, up-to-date information concerning network resources. Improved switch interaction processes are needed to minimize the interference with switch resources during such switch interaction. In addition, there is a need for switch interaction processes compatible with multiple switch types that are easy to maintain as well as extensible.
There is also a need for a NIM that interacts with the switch to automatically setup special studies concerning network resources on a lower, i.e., more-detailed, level. For example, traffic information may be desired concerning detailed line concentrators (e.g., half line grids or line group concentrators). In such instances, a special study will need to be set up on a switch, which will require sophisticated switch interaction processes.
4. Definitions Of Terms
The following term definitions are provided to assist in conveying an understanding of the various exemplary embodiments and features disclosed herein.
Traffic-Related Data
Traffic data and/or traffic management data.
Traffic Data
Usage, peg count, overflow, blockage and other performance, usage, and/or capacity information concerning a large set of network resources, e.g., trunk groups, multi-line hunt groups, virtual facilities groups, simulated facilities groups, subscriber lines and so on.
Traffic Management Data
Usage, peg count, overflow, blockage, and other information concerning a smaller set of network resources, e.g., interoffice trunk groups.
Multiline Hunt Group
A logical group of lines (e.g., modem pool, sales operator pool, etc.). An incoming call will search for an idle line within the specified group of lines.
Network Resources (Facilities)
Network resources may comprise physical network resources or virtual network resources.
Virtual Network Resources
Such resources include services such as three-way calling, call-forwarding, and distinctive ringing. Measurements concerning virtual network resources may comprise such values as the number of calls accessing the service, and the number of service failures.
Physical Network Resources
These may comprise switch components or other physical network components. Some examples includes concentrators, common control equipment, transmission components, processors, and memory devices (e.g., buffers). Measurements concerning physical network resources may include such values as peg count, overflow, blockage, usage, and the number of members corresponding to each such network resource (this is a value concerning the capacity or size of the resource).
Inventory (Reference Data)
The capacity and configuration of a particular network resource (virtual or physical). Some information concerning the capacity and/or configuration of a physical network resource may include the number of members associated with that resource (e.g., the number of subscriber lines at the output of a line concentrator), whether the network resource is physically provided in the network, whether the network resource is hardware assigned (connected to something), and whether the resource is software assigned (given a number, e.g., in a particular service).
The present invention is provided to improve upon network information management systems and methods. In order to achieve this end, one or more aspects of the invention may be followed to bring about one or more specific objects and advantages, such as those noted below.
One object of the present invention is to provide an improved switch interaction subsystem and method for facilitating the automatic setup and takedown of traffic studies associated with one or more network switches, and to further facilitate other configuration and information-gathering functions associated with such switches.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a network information management system and switch interaction subsystem associated therewith which facilitate the automatic setting up of special studies (i.e., where one or more switches may have to be configured to accumulate OMs) and the acquisition of data in a database from the associated switch in accordance with such special studies.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved network capacity management system which allows inventory data to be acquired directly from the switch (or indirectly via a data collector) in an automated manner. Such information can be used to provide a picture of the overall network capacity and configuration, and may be used to facilitate traffic-related data measurement functions performed by NIMs.
Other features may be provided to achieve additional objects and advantages. For example, a switch interaction subsystem may be provided to accommodate multiple switch types and to allow a network information management system to interact with different switch types to setup and takedown studies and to obtain information from the switch in an automated fashion. The present invention, therefore, is directed to a method or system for performing network information management functions. The present invention may also be directed to one or more subcomponents of such a method or system.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a network information management system has, among other elements, a traffic reporting system, a switch shell, and a scheduling mechanism. The traffic reporting system includes a database holding traffic-related data collected from a digital telecommunications network switch. The switch shell comprises a multi-layer subsystem, including a higher layer, a middle layer, and a lower layer. The higher layer comprises a generic interface protocol defining common switch interaction functions with a set of query and response subsets. The common switch interaction functions are common among multiple switch types. The middle layer comprises respective code portions uniquely compatible with the corresponding multiple switch types. The lower layer interfaces the switch shell with a local area network linking plural digital telecommunications switches. The scheduling mechanism schedules the interactions between the traffic reporting system and the switch shell.
The query and response subsets may comprise a query and response subset for submitting an inventory request to the switch and for receiving, in response to the submitted inventory request, inventory information from the switch. The inventory information may comprise a unique identifier of a network resource, and a number of members provided as part of the network resource. The inventory information may further include information indicating whether each member of the network resource is at least one of hardware assigned and software assigned.
The multiple switch types may comprise 5ESS and DMS 100 switches. The network resource may comprise a concentrator comprising first and second sides, where a first number of channels is provided at the first side and a second larger number of lines is provided at the second side. The concentrator may also comprise a line concentrating module of a DMS 100 switch, or a concentrator of a 5ESS switch, receiving 64 channels at the first side and receiving up to 640 lines at the second side.
A query and response subset may be provided for submitting a setup request to the switch to setup one or more particular traffic studies. The setting up of a particular study may comprise assigning a set of registers within the switch to accumulate data concerning network resources associated with the switch. The switch accumulates, in the assigned set of registers, operational measurements (OMs) and associated inventory information. The associated inventory information may include one or more of a unique identifier of a network resource, a number of members provided as part of the network resource, and information indicating whether each member of the network resource is at least one of hardware assigned and software assigned.
In this regard, the network information management system may further comprise an OM retrieval process for retrieving the accumulated OMs from the assigned set of registers. A facility update process may be provided for updating facility files comprising inventory information pertaining to the network resource. In addition, a facility loader may be provided which uses network inventory information in the facility files to modify network resource information held by the database.